Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
There's No Tomorrow [CD-single] [Import]
Non E'Tempo D'Aspettare: Frottole From 1509
Music: The Telling Takes Me Home
Mezzanine De L'alcazar V.4 [Import]
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff [Import]
Scream [Deluxe Edition] [Import] [Original recording remastered]
Live in Toronto 1977, Vol. 1 [Live]
Out the Park [Explicit Lyrics]
Amazon.com
Chrissie Hynde is back to kick some ass. ¡Viva el Amor!, the Pretenders' first studio album since 1994's Last of the Independents, provides a reading on the singer's state of mind and relationships. Hynde and company--stalwart drummer Martin Chambers and an assortment of complementary players--take the energy level to breathtaking heights, especially on "Legalise Me," which matches Jeff Beck's incendiary guitar work against our heroine's rapid-fire delivery. Hynde shows that she can still sneer with the best of them on "Popstar," her biting send-up of late-'90s girl singers (and reportedly a roman à clef aimed in part at Patsy Kensit, who was once married to Hynde's former husband, Simple Minds' Jim Kerr). "Baby's Breath" skewers a young lover and showcases her sangfroid vocals at their chilling best. Hynde pours on more vitriol in "Biker," the record's final cut, which pairs steel-hard lyrics with an incongruously sweet string section. Nearly two decades after the release of the Pretenders' landmark debut, the Great Pretender is still feeling feisty. --Jaan Uhelszki